


Lex And His Plans

by josephina_x



Series: Cotton Candy Bingo 2012 [4]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-31
Updated: 2012-08-31
Packaged: 2017-11-13 05:53:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/500217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Birthday (end of season 3)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lex And His Plans

Lex was feeling a little frantic.

Understandably.

Because today was Clark's birthday and nothing -- literally _nothing_ \-- was going right.

He hadn't felt like crying over a birthday-party-gone-wrong in _years_ , if that was any indication of the seriousness of the matter, and the level of importance to which he gave it.

Lex was a jittery, emotionally-volatile mess, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to go hide in his room under his bedsheets and sob for awhile with nobody to come looking after him and be left alone for an age, except that if he did that _that wouldn't solve anything_ and he _knew_ that.

He still wanted to, anyway.

He was almost wishing that he hadn't managed to get Lionel and Martha out of the mansion for the day -- how he'd accomplished that, he still didn't know -- because he could have at least enlisted some baking help.

His Cook had gone missing on him. He'd found a frantic note on the kitchen counter that morning about how Cook's son had gotten into a car accident and she'd had to fly off to the hospital to see him. She wasn't even in the same state -- she should about an hour out from California by this point.

So, no birthday cake.

His staff had deserted him.... sort of. He'd given them the day off, because he knew how Clark felt about parties being a friends-and-family affair, and hadn't wanted him or his friends to feel weird at other random employees of his being about. The only problem with that was that the shipment of party effects he'd ordered had somehow been delayed and/or lost, and he was finding much to his dismay that he couldn't for the life of him navigate the byzantine system that was the shipping company's so-called 'customer service line' on his own.

So, no party favors or decorations.

The few things he'd ordered for Clark -- not too big, not too small -- were in the same shipment.

So, no presents.

But the thing that was _killing_ him was really none of the above. He could find a way to manage something reasonable for all that somehow, or just declare it unimportant in the grand scheme of things, if not for one rather party-stopping problem.

Nobody was coming.

He'd sent out invitations well-in-advance to Clark's friends, and received no replies. He'd _assumed_ that no reply was par for the course for teenagers, and not worried ...until no-one had shown up at the appointed hour. Or ten minutes past. Or thirty minutes past. Or...

He'd frantically called around, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Another meteor freak on the loose? A hostage situation in town? Some dread disease that had caused a Code Orange quarantine of the town?

Lana's phone had gone straight to voicemail. Chloe had picked up, listened to his twitching half-rant half-plea, and just laughed, said she was in Metropolis and busy, and hung up. Pete hadn't even given him that much -- the moment he'd brought up Clark, he'd heard the click.

After he'd tried Lana's phone one more time and still had it go straight to voicemail, he gave up on the lot of them.

"Fine!" he ranted at his cellphone, tossing it onto the counter. "I don't need them! --Clark. _Clark_ doesn't need them. It'll be fine. It'll be just... just... I can probably find some people in town, or something," he told himself. "No problem. I'll just move it to the Talon, and everybody's ok with suddenly getting sucked into surprise parties and things, right?" he said, thinking about when Clark had thrown him one there, and then despaired a bit because it had been really well done, too, and comparisons were going to be made, and he didn't want Clark to think he didn't _care_ , oh god--

"No, dammit, focus Luthor," he grumbled to himself, slapping himself in the face. "You can do this. You manage a fertilizer plant that emplys hundreds of people, for gods sake. Lots and lots of people count on you every day. You can handle one goddamn birthday party for your little alien stepbrother. _You can do this_ ," he told himself, working himself up.

He took a deep breath in and out, and glanced at the clock. Right. He had time. He had asked everyone over at an earlier time to help out with the decorating and such, so he still had about an hour and a half before Clark was due back from his jaunt around town, helping with the school's farewell-seniors fair.

Right. Step one: Birthday Cake. He could do this.

\---

He couldn't do this.

Lex was curled up in his bed, trying not to cry.

He knew he was getting flour all over the sheets, and he didn't care.

Why, why, _why_ was baking so hard?

God, he needed to at least get the birthday cake done for _something_ like a birthday party, and he hadn't even been able to manage that. He'd nearly set the kitchen on fire. Cook was going to be furious when she got back.

He just couldn't understand it. He was a grown man. He knew how to follow instructions. He had a degree in biochemistry even! Yet somehow he couldn't follow a simple set of directions to get a cake baked properly.

"...Lex?" he heard from the hallway.

Oh god.

He curled up into a tighter ball and tried not to whimper.

"Lex?" he heard from his doorway and damnit, he thought he'd locked that!

Except he knew that the only person who'd ever check up on him in here was Clark, and coincidently enough, Clark was the only person he'd _want_ to check up on him in here.

Stupid sabotaging brain.

He felt Clark sit down on the edge of the mattress behind him.

"Surprise party not going so well?" he heard Clark ask, and he knew, just _knew_ that Clark must've come in the back kitchen entrance and seen the mess.

"...Who told?" Lex asked quietly, feeling horrible. After all, it wasn't as though Clark could have inferred 'birthday cake' from what had been there -- yes, it _had_ been **that bad** \-- so he must've gotten the intel from someone else prior.

"Chloe," said Clark.

Lex grumbled about reporters who coudn't keep a secret to save their lives and curled into a tigher ball.

Clark sighed.

"Lex..." he started, "You _do_ know that Chloe is already in Metropolis and working at her Daily Palnet internship again, and Pete is off with his mom in another _state_ because his parents got divorced and his mom moved them away and he's... kind of not speaking to me right now, and that Lana is probably still on her plane to France because of all the weird layovers and stuff ...right?"

...No, actually, Lex hadn't. He turned his head slightly and peered up over his shoulder at Clark.

"Why didn't they just RSVP and _say_ that?" he asked Clark.

"Uh, Lex, I'm pretty sure most people only RSVP to say they're coming, not that they're _not_ coming," Clark told him.

"They do if they're polite," Lex insisted.

Clark laughed. "Geez Lex, since when are my friends polite?" he grinned down at him.

Lex couldn't help but smile a little.

"C'mon," Clark poked at him, trying to get him to turn over and uncurl a little. "What's really upsetting you?"

"Nobody came," Lex said, wiping at his eyes hurriedly after Clark started to and he'd realized that -- self-control? _what_ self-control? -- he'd been crying in the first place.

"Well, _you're_ here," Clark said amiably. "And I kind of already knew about the others."

Lex felt himself blush slightly at the mention of himself, then grimaced. "I made sure your mother and my father weren't here," he admitted.

"Uh, that's kind of ok, Lex," Clark laughed. "I wouldn't really want Lionel at my birthday party, things are weird enough as it is. I'm not even sure he'd want to be, either," he smiled. "Awkward all around, you know? And mom'd be angry if you tried to invite her but not him, and he wasn't allowed to come or something."

Lex winced at the very thought.

"I couldn't even get the cake right," Lex said sadly.

"Baking is hard," Clark said sagely.

Lex sighed and let his eyes drift shut as Clark stroked his forehead.

"You know that today probably isn't even my birthday, right?" Clark told him in a soft patter of words. "My paren-- the Kents just picked a random day off of the calendar. And I've never really liked celebrating it anyway, because I always felt like I was celebrating being born to people who didn't want me."

"...That's kind of sad," Lex said quietly.

"I guess," Clark said. He stopped stroking Lex's forehead and Lex slowly opened his eyes. Clark planted his hand down on the other side of Lex, leaning over him. "But I'm kind of ok with that."

"I'm not," said Lex.

"Why?"

"Because it shouldn't be like that," Lex said quietly, feeling horrible.

"...You're thinking it's like the day your dad gave you the St. George's box and I'm just being brave or something, don't you," Clark said back, just as quietly.

Lex winced as that hit a little too close to home. This was _not_ supposed to be about him.

"Look," Clark said reasonably. "I'd really just spend the day with you, ok?" And oh god, now Clark was giving him the puppy-dog eyes. "Do you maybe want to watch a movie with me or something?"

Lex started to smile; he just couldn't help it. "Yeah, ok," he said, rubbing the last little bit of his tears away like they'd never been.

Clark smiled back, bright as the noonday sun.


End file.
